Democracy

For John, BLUF:  Was it President Andrew Shephard who said "America is advanced citizenship"?

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Writer E. B. White writing in The New Yorker, Feb 26, 1949.

The pesky nature of democratic life is that it has no comfortable rigidity; it always hangs by a thread, never quite submits to consolidation or solidification, is always being challenged, always being defended. The seeming insubstantiality of this thread is a matter of concern and worry to persons who naturally prefer a more robust support for the beloved structure. The thread is particularly worrisome....to men of tidy habits and large affairs, who are accustomed to reinforce themselves at every possible turn.... But they do not always perceive that the elasticity of democracy is its strength----like the web of a spider, which bends but holds. The desire to give the whole thing greater rigidity and a more conventional set of fastenings is almost overwhelming in these times when the strain is great, and it makes professed lovers of liberty propose measures that show little real faith in liberty.

Regards  —  Cliff